Go back to previous page
Forum URL: http://www.eyrie-productions.com/Forum/dcboard.cgi
Forum Name: Symphony of the Sword/The Order of the Rose
Topic ID: 252
#0, I feel silly today.
Posted by Gryphon on Apr-17-09 at 11:45 AM

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#1, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by SneakyPete on Apr-17-09 at 01:13 PM
In response to message #0
{raised eyebrow} *Mr.* W. Shinohara? Is this the old wet-navy tradition of referring to all officers as "Mister", or has Wakaba gone and done something...odd?

#3, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Gryphon on Apr-17-09 at 01:25 PM
In response to message #1
LAST EDITED ON Apr-17-09 AT 01:26 PM (EDT)
 
>{raised eyebrow} *Mr.* W. Shinohara? Is this the old wet-navy
>tradition of referring to all officers as "Mister", or has Wakaba gone
>and done something...odd?

Oh, the former, I assure you. (Similarly, holders of the IPSF enlisted rating below Petty Officer are referred to as "Able Spaceman" regardless of whether they're male, female, or otherwise.)

In UF's 25th century, such conventions descend not only from Earth's pre-spaceflight wet navy traditions, but also from (the generally accepted Standard translations of) the pre-Contact traditions of the Royal Salusian Navy. In the RSN, for instance, the young officers who hold the Queen's commission but have not passed for lieutenant are still addressed as "Mr. Midshipman $SURNAME", when they aren't being called "you daft undergrown bugger, stop larking about in the tops or I'll have the hide off yer, God rot your f---ing soul" by the sailing-master. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#6, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Polychrome on Apr-17-09 at 05:29 PM
In response to message #3
It also makes it easier when dealing with individuals who don't fit into your standard male/female categories, so you don't have to remember what the proper form of address is for Lt.(j.g.) Hftzl this month.

Polychrome


#4, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Peter Eng on Apr-17-09 at 01:27 PM
In response to message #1
For all we know, this is some wit's way of referring to Kyouichi Saionji. This announcement was clearly written by somebody who is having too much fun.

Peter Eng
--
I'm only a Charter Member because of the DCForum upgrade, and because there's no rank below "Clueless F!wit."


#2, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Gulping Again on Apr-17-09 at 01:23 PM
In response to message #0
Is this a prelude to NEW CHALLENGERS APPEARING?

#5, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Droken on Apr-17-09 at 05:26 PM
In response to message #0
>thiry-six guns

"Aaaaand, SALUTE!"


#7, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by BZArcher on Apr-17-09 at 05:39 PM
In response to message #0
I like it!

#8, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by TheOtherSean on Apr-17-09 at 10:43 PM
In response to message #0
Somebody appears to have been inspired by Patrick O'Brian. May Captain Tenjou enjoy as much success amongst the stars as Captain Aubrey did at sea.

>
>
>--G.


#9, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by jadmire on Apr-18-09 at 01:08 AM
In response to message #8
ROTFL!!!!!! Just for the record, I'm working my way back through the Aubreyiad. I'm approximately at the point in The Fortune of War where the good Doctor Maturin twigs that the evil minions of Buonaparte are getting close to smoking him and is about to serve them out as they deserve.

-Joe-


#10, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by jadmire on Apr-18-09 at 01:17 AM
In response to message #9
LAST EDITED ON Apr-18-09 AT 01:21 AM (EDT)
 
I would, by the way, strongly encourage Captain Tenjou:

(1) on no account to allow spacefaring sloths aboard her command:

(2) if she chooses to disregard (1), on no account to risk the wrath of the ship's chief medical officer by debauching said sloth via applications of alcohol:

(3) and certainly by no means to let any spacegoing wombats taken onboard by the ship's chief medical officer ANYWHERE near her best formal hat.

(4) Or, if said wombat cannot be dissuaded from eating said hat, to at least pass it the ship's best available grade of Worchestershire sauce.

-Joe-


#11, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Gryphon on Apr-18-09 at 07:09 AM
In response to message #10
>(2) if she chooses to disregard (1), on no account to risk the wrath
>of the ship's chief medical officer by debauching said sloth via
>applications of alcohol:

As Atomic Robo once put it, that's just good advice in any line of work.

--G.
["He who would pun would pick a pocket."]
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#15, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Peter Eng on Apr-20-09 at 06:50 PM
In response to message #10
Regarding item 2:

I don't think Aya Nakajima would do that.

Peter Eng
--
I'm only a Charter Member because of the DCForum upgrade, and because there's no rank below "Clueless F!wit."


#12, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by BeardedFerret on Apr-20-09 at 00:55 AM
In response to message #0
New ship! Nifty. Does Star Trek have frigates or will you be pulling it from another source? Anything but the dumb-looking Nebulon B class from Star Wars...

#13, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Prince Charon on Apr-20-09 at 04:47 PM
In response to message #12
Personally, the ship's name reminds me of the 1996 movie Star Command. The 'hero' ship in that movie was called the D.R.E. Surprise, and while the acting in the movie was no better than average, the writing managed to use cliches entertainingly instead of annoyingly, and the ship designs were pretty cool, IIRC.

“They planned their campaigns just as you might make a splendid piece of harness. It looks very well; and answers very well; until it gets broken; and then you are done for. Now I made my campaigns of ropes. If anything went wrong, I tied a knot; and went on.”
-- Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington


#14, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by StClair on Apr-20-09 at 06:10 PM
In response to message #12
The Okinawa class is in service with Starfleet, but I suspect that Surprise is a vessel of Salusian make, and thus resembles nothing so much as a wet-navy vessel with engine ports and random fins added.

#16, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Gryphon on Apr-20-09 at 08:09 PM
In response to message #12
>New ship! Nifty. Does Star Trek have frigates or will you be pulling
>it from another source?

Quite a number of Star Trek secondary sources mention starships of smaller types than the ones seen on TV and in the movies, but the on-screen Starfleet has never been much for smaller-ship actions; we usually only see cruisers and larger on the Starfleet side of things (with the notable exception of USS Defiant in Deep Space Nine). Many of those smaller ships do (or did) exist in the UF universe. For instance, I have an uncompleted story fragment kicking around featuring an appearance by a Saladin-class destroyer (which you may have seen in Starfleet Command, and which in UF is in service with the WDF and Starfleet).

That said, the Surprise class isn't directly based on any of them. As the latest in the IPSF's "Next Generation Warship" series, it's basically a smaller Sovereign: It has a distinct family resemblance, as far as things like the styling of the warp nacelles and vents and whatnot go, but the ship as a whole is smaller and hasn't much, if any, of a secondary hull - just a slight squaring-off and thickening abaft the bridge, with the warp engines mounted directly to the main hull. Kind of a cross between the Sovereign- and Defiant-class designs, albeit smaller than the one and larger than the other. Not unlike the Miranda class as compared with the Constitution, I suppose you might say. No "rollbar" torpedo room, though. Torpedo tubes are inboard forward, as in a submarine.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#22, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Barricade on Apr-27-09 at 06:10 AM
In response to message #16
As I can't stand the Saladin (no offense Gryphon - tis a good ship, especially her Starfleet battles counterpart, but its a personal dislike of the look), can I suggest this instead if you decide to continue with an older style design in that other story?



#23, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Gryphon on Apr-27-09 at 12:26 PM
In response to message #22
>As I can't stand the Saladin (no offense Gryphon - tis a good ship,
>especially her Starfleet battles counterpart, but its a personal
>dislike of the look), can I suggest this instead if you decide to
>continue with an older style design in that other story?

You may not, sir! Why, the damned impertinence! The cheek!

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#26, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Wedge on Apr-27-09 at 03:26 PM
In response to message #23
LAST EDITED ON Apr-27-09 AT 03:28 PM (EDT)
 
>>As I can't stand the Saladin (no offense Gryphon - tis a good ship,
>>especially her Starfleet battles counterpart, but its a personal
>>dislike of the look), can I suggest this instead if you decide to
>>continue with an older style design in that other story?
>
>You may not, sir! Why, the damned impertinence! The cheek!

Designed by Gil Hibben.


Chad Collier
Smirking Kilrathi
The Captain of the Gravy Train


#27, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Gryphon on Apr-27-09 at 05:00 PM
In response to message #26
>>>As I can't stand the Saladin (no offense Gryphon - tis a good ship,
>>>especially her Starfleet battles counterpart, but its a personal
>>>dislike of the look), can I suggest this instead if you decide to
>>>continue with an older style design in that other story?
>>
>>You may not, sir! Why, the damned impertinence! The cheek!
>
>Designed by Gil Hibben.

Harrumph.

Anyway, going back over the draft, it turns out the ship I was thinking of is not a Saladin-class starship, as offered in the old Franz Joseph Star Fleet Technical Manual; it's a variant of same that I think I came up with myself, called the Saracen class, which has two warp engines (one above the primary hull, the other below).

Battletech fans will spot the pattern there - the Saracen and Saladin tanks were very similar-looking, variations on the same theme - and the circle will be completed when I mention that the specific Saracen-class destroyer I had lined up an appearance for was WDF Scimitar.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#28, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Wedge on Apr-27-09 at 05:32 PM
In response to message #27

>>Designed by Gil Hibben.
>
>Harrumph.

What? Oh, sorry, I suppose I replied messily. I was referring to the suggested ship design, not the one you were referencing, which immediately made me think of a particular Gil Hibben knife that I coveted in my youth before I was in a position to spend what it was worth at the time on such things. This isn't really good or bad, just a bit of free association.

Still, I bet the engineer curses the architect that made him have to cut across the shuttle bay every god damn time the starboard induction pump starts acting up again. :)



Chad Collier
Smirking Kilrathi
The Captain of the Gravy Train


#29, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Barricade on Apr-27-09 at 08:57 PM
In response to message #28
And when Gryphon mentioned the Saracen, I immediately remembered a certain fighter/interceptor from X-COM.

#30, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Gryphon on Apr-27-09 at 09:00 PM
In response to message #28
>
>>>Designed by Gil Hibben.
>>
>>Harrumph.
>
>What?

Sorry, I was agreeing. "Gil Hibben! Just so! And not quite the thing, what?"

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#31, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Wedge on Apr-27-09 at 09:03 PM
In response to message #30
>>
>>>>Designed by Gil Hibben.
>>>
>>>Harrumph.
>>
>>What?
>
>Sorry, I was agreeing. "Gil Hibben! Just so! And not quite the
>thing, what?"

Brilliant!



Chad Collier
Smirking Kilrathi
The Captain of the Gravy Train


#32, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Nathan on Apr-28-09 at 00:47 AM
In response to message #27
>Anyway, going back over the draft, it turns out the ship I was
>thinking of is not a Saladin-class starship, as offered
>in the old Franz Joseph Star Fleet Technical Manual; it's a
>variant of same that I think I came up with myself, called the
>Saracen class, which has two warp engines (one above the
>primary hull, the other below).

Ah! What Klingon Academy calls the Akula class, IIRC?


#33, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Gryphon on Apr-28-09 at 01:16 AM
In response to message #32
>Ah! What Klingon Academy calls the Akula class, IIRC?

Wow, I'd forgotten all about Klingon Academy. I used to have that (and its predecessor, Starfleet Academy), but damned if I could lay my hands on it now.

Anyway, yeah, my mental picture of the Saracen class is similar to this, though it lacks the torpedo-room "box" (the torpedo tubes are in the main hull, as in the original TV Enterprise) and the warp engines aren't staggered like that - they're both raked pretty sharply aft on narrow pylons, like the dorsal one in the pic accompanying that article.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#34, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by CdrMike on Apr-29-09 at 08:04 AM
In response to message #33
>Anyway, yeah, my mental picture of the Saracen class is similar
>to this, though
>it lacks the torpedo-room "box" (the torpedo tubes are in the main
>hull, as in the original TV Enterprise) and the warp engines
>aren't staggered like that - they're both raked pretty sharply aft on
>narrow pylons, like the dorsal one in the pic accompanying that
>article.

Something like this, perhaps?


#35, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Gryphon on Apr-29-09 at 01:57 PM
In response to message #34
>Something like this, perhaps?

Yep! That's pretty much exactly what one would've looked like before the famous Enterprise refit.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#36, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by McFortner on Apr-29-09 at 03:42 PM
In response to message #35
Back in 2004 when I had some time to spare and nothing better to do, I played around with some designs. This is one that I came up with and never deleted. Sorry for the rough look, but it was a kitbash from a book scan.

So I guess this might be what the upgraded version might look like, no?

Michael




Michael C. Fortner
RCW #2n+1

"I smoke in moderation. Only one cigar at a time."
-- Mark Twain



#37, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Wedge on Apr-29-09 at 04:05 PM
In response to message #36
>Back in 2004 when I had some time to spare and nothing better to do, I
>played around with some designs. This is one that I came up with and
>never deleted. Sorry for the rough look, but it was a kitbash from a
>book scan.
>
>http://inlinethumb57.webshots.com/3064/2615515840099072508S600x600Q85.jpg?x
>
>So I guess this might be what the upgraded version might look like,
>no?

I, personally, would flip the lower nacelle so that it was a mirror image of the upper. No knock on your job there, just my own aesthetic. :)



Chad Collier
Smirking Kilrathi
The Captain of the Gravy Train


#38, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Gryphon on Apr-29-09 at 04:19 PM
In response to message #36
>So I guess this might be what the upgraded version might look like,
>no?

Pretty close, yeah. It looks like you've used the "neck" that connects the main hull of a Connie to the engineering hull, rather than the warp engine supports, which is a bit superfluous in this application; and I think I like wedge's notion of mirroring the ventral nacelle. But this is close enough to give the idea. It's basically a pancake that has aspirations of being a fork. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#39, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by McFortner on Apr-29-09 at 05:26 PM
In response to message #38
LAST EDITED ON Apr-29-09 AT 05:52 PM (EDT)
 
Ok, I can worth with that. I forgot where I downloaded this "kit" for kitbashing images off the web, but I figured I would try out my beginner GIMP-fu on it.



Is this more what you had in mind? I'm no Chad or Larry, but I try. I can't get the lettering right yet, but the kit did have Star of Avalon Pennant that I was able to modify for the top warp nacelle. And I did move the Torpedo Bays to the nose instead of under the saucer. I thought it looked better recessed there.

Michael




Michael C. Fortner
RCW #2n+1

"I smoke in moderation. Only one cigar at a time."
-- Mark Twain



#40, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Wedge on Apr-29-09 at 05:49 PM
In response to message #39
>Is this more what you had in mind? I'm no Chad or Larry, but I try.
>I can't get the lettering right yet, but the kit did have Star of
>Avalon Pennant that I was able to modify for the top warp nacelle.
>And I did move the Torpedo Bays to the nose instead of under the
>saucer. I thought it looked better recessed there.

Hey, those are pretty keen. Don't suppose that kit's is postable or email-able? I'd be interested in having a box of starship parts, as it were. :)



Chad Collier
Smirking Kilrathi
The Captain of the Gravy Train


#41, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Gryphon on Apr-29-09 at 06:15 PM
In response to message #39
>Is this more what you had in mind?

Nice!

>I can't get the lettering right yet, but the kit did have Star of
>Avalon Pennant that I was able to modify for the top warp nacelle.

Well, the ship in question belongs to the WDF anyway, and they don't use the Star of Avalon as an insignia - just some blue striping (where Starfleet uses red, not that it matters in a monochrome image :) and the time-honored WDF diamond.

>And I did move the Torpedo Bays to the nose instead of under the
>saucer. I thought it looked better recessed there.

That does look good (and it's consistent with those round openings on the front of the saucer in TOS-era diagrams, even though those probably aren't supposed to be torpedo tubes). The effects guys just sort of drew photon torpedoes coming from nowhere in the original show anyway. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#42, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by McFortner on Apr-29-09 at 06:22 PM
In response to message #41
LAST EDITED ON Apr-29-09 AT 06:28 PM (EDT)
 
I did want to pass on a good site for starship models, inpayne.com. He does some great work with both canon and kitbash models. His U.S.S. Artemis (www.inpayne.com/models/kitbash/trekpage_artemis.html) is a great rendition of what the Star Trek Phase II Enterprise might have looked like. If I was in UF, that's what I'd love to command (NCC-2001 I.P.S. Discovery). Pipe dream perhaps....

Michael



Michael C. Fortner
RCW #2n+1

"I smoke in moderation. Only one cigar at a time."
-- Mark Twain



#43, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Wedge on Apr-29-09 at 06:35 PM
In response to message #42
>I did want to pass on a good site for starship models, inpayne.com.
>He does some great work with both canon and kitbash models. His
>U.S.S. Artemis (www.inpayne.com/models/kitbash/trekpage_artemis.html)
>is a great rendition of what the Star Trek Phase II Enterprise might
>have looked like. If I was in UF, that's what I'd love to command
>(NCC-2001 I.P.S. Discovery). Pipe dream perhaps....

Wow, I can't decide if it's the forbidden love child of a Connie and the XB-70, or part of the WDF's secret Miniaturization Force. :)



Chad Collier
Smirking Kilrathi
The Captain of the Gravy Train


#44, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by McFortner on Apr-29-09 at 06:52 PM
In response to message #43
Gotta love it though, 8 torpedo tubes, no waiting! ;)

Michael



Michael C. Fortner
RCW #2n+1

"I smoke in moderation. Only one cigar at a time."
-- Mark Twain



#48, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Gulping Again on Apr-30-09 at 10:51 PM
In response to message #43
>>I did want to pass on a good site for starship models, inpayne.com.
>>He does some great work with both canon and kitbash models. His
>>U.S.S. Artemis (www.inpayne.com/models/kitbash/trekpage_artemis.html)
>>is a great rendition of what the Star Trek Phase II Enterprise might
>>have looked like. If I was in UF, that's what I'd love to command
>>(NCC-2001 I.P.S. Discovery). Pipe dream perhaps....
>
>Wow, I can't decide if it's the forbidden love child of a Connie and
>the XB-70, or part of the WDF's secret Miniaturization Force. :)

Personally, I'm liking his experimental gunship USS Wolf:

It's 1km long, and 800 of those meters are dedicated to its ridiculous railgun-like antimatter cannon. The schematics he made up are as absurd as you'd expect: http://www.inpayne.com/trekfanfic/wolfdetails.html
It's basically an attempt to copy the Doomsday Weapon's main gun using normal Starfleet science.

Now imagine this bad boy with UF-level tech: Either your pants just got less comfortable or you started cackling insanely. I don't know, it varies from person to person. Maybe both of those things happened. It really depends on how you feel about obscenely gratuitous overkill.


#49, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Gryphon on Apr-30-09 at 11:11 PM
In response to message #48
>Now imagine this bad boy with UF-level tech: Either your pants just
>got less comfortable or you started cackling insanely.

Or, if you're me, you did this:

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#50, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by BZArcher on May-01-09 at 00:10 AM
In response to message #48
Oh, John Ringo, no.

#51, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by McFortner on May-01-09 at 03:58 PM
In response to message #48

>It's basically an attempt to copy the Doomsday Weapon's main gun using
>normal Starfleet science.

But you have to remember that it was designed as a Borg Cube Killer. He wrote a short story about this ship too. It was OK.

Michael



Michael C. Fortner
RCW #2n+1

"I smoke in moderation. Only one cigar at a time."
-- Mark Twain



#52, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Peter Eng on May-01-09 at 06:17 PM
In response to message #48
http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/72508834/5232762

Peter Eng
--
I'm only a Charter Member because of the DCForum upgrade, and because there's no rank below "Clueless F!wit."


#53, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by CdrMike on May-03-09 at 00:01 AM
In response to message #48
>Now imagine this bad boy with UF-level tech: Either your pants just
>got less comfortable or you started cackling insanely. I don't know,
>it varies from person to person. Maybe both of those things happened.
>It really depends on how you feel about obscenely gratuitous overkill.

I imagine it'd be a "paper project" that never made it past computer modeling, the brainchild of some bored R&D guy going "What If?". Not only is the design so complicated and laughably vulnerable that it'd be more of a danger to the crew than it would the enemy, it'd be totally against the principles of Starfleet, in UF as well as the original source.


#54, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by The Traitor on May-03-09 at 10:24 AM
In response to message #53
Perhaps is it a little mean to dismiss out of hand every last aspect of the Poodle class, or whatever it was. The ship itself is laughable. For sure, it is completely out of character for the Tin Frisbee Brigade. For sure, it laughs in the face of the UF equivalent of OSHA regulations.

The actual gun the thing's carrying is a class act. It's got potential. And that would be of considerable interest to the various capital ship designing wallahs in Known Space. So what if at the moment it's mounted in the starship equivalent of a damp cigar? It doesn't have to be. And perhaps that'll be something to be looked at by those nice chaps from ZCII or Utopia Planitia?


#55, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by CdrMike on May-03-09 at 03:51 PM
In response to message #54
>Perhaps is it a little mean to dismiss out of hand every last aspect
>of the Poodle class, or whatever it was. The ship itself is
>laughable. For sure, it is completely out of character for the Tin
>Frisbee Brigade. For sure, it laughs in the face of the UF equivalent
>of OSHA regulations.
>
>The actual gun the thing's carrying is a class act. It's got
>potential. And that would be of considerable interest to the various
>capital ship designing wallahs in Known Space. So what if at the
>moment it's mounted in the starship equivalent of a damp cigar? It
>doesn't have to be. And perhaps that'll be something to be looked at
>by those nice chaps from ZCII or Utopia Planitia?

The actual gun is why I declared the design more of a danger to the crew than to the enemy. Not only are you carrying more antimatter onboard than most tankers, but the weapon itself requires a very precise, error-free series of steps to be followed in order to fire a single volley. If there's an error during any of those steps, at best you've rendered the main gun inert, at worst you and the other ships in your fleet are less than a minute away from becoming a free-floating cloud of subatomic particles.

Antimatter is and has generally always been best used in (relatively) small amounts, such as for fueling M/AM reactors or photon torpedoes. When antimatter starts accounting for more than 1/4 of a ship's design weight, you're not just asking for trouble, you're basically reserving a plot in the afterlife.


#56, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Gulping Again on May-04-09 at 03:22 AM
In response to message #55
True that. Besides, I've given it some actual thought, and really, what the hell would it even GAIN from UF-overtech? Metaspace capability, if anything. The design of the ship doesn't lend itself easily to any known Class-Omega weapon. Nothing besides this thing's Linear Antimatter Cannon or whatever the thing would be called (other than stupid) actually requires a real barrel, never mind an 800m long one!

One could replace the barrel and antimatter tanks with a massive reflex furnace system, but that'd probably be just as useless and dangerous (although using such a thing as a base for the New Macross Class' gun-ship might be an interesting option).

A Getter based system would probably be exceedingly powerful, and would also likely become self aware and start eating people and then we'd have a real Doomsday Machine on the loose (Canonically, this is what Getter Energy actually DOES. It's not a very friendly kind of sentient cosmic energy).

And even if a practical power source was found, what would be the damned purpose of the thing? There's no Borg here (yet) and even if there were, the WDF has more than enough firepower to deal with them. The only use I can see for it is punching Akio in the face with GRATUITOUS AMOUNTS OF ENERGY (This post contains far too many comments in parentheses).


#57, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by The Traitor on May-04-09 at 05:26 AM
In response to message #55
>The actual gun is why I declared the design more of a danger to the
>crew than to the enemy. Not only are you carrying more antimatter
>onboard than most tankers, but the weapon itself requires a very
>precise, error-free series of steps to be followed in order to fire a
>single volley. If there's an error during any of those steps, at best
>you've rendered the main gun inert, at worst you and the other ships
>in your fleet are less than a minute away from becoming a
>free-floating cloud of subatomic particles.
>
>Antimatter is and has generally always been best used in (relatively)
>small amounts, such as for fueling M/AM reactors or photon torpedoes.
>When antimatter starts accounting for more than 1/4 of a ship's design
>weight, you're not just asking for trouble, you're basically reserving
>a plot in the afterlife.

Like I said, it has potential. I never said the thing was entirely perfect - though, that said, the thing's 800 metres of highly unstable antimatter and that's a pretty big reason to make it perfect. And that, I reckon, is what the R&D teams of whichever company is mad enough to buy the plans would have to work on. Perhaps not so much a railgun as a rail-acceleration system that fires heavily-shielded buckyballs containing the antimatter in a similar manner to the bottle effect on plasma-based weaponry...

Also, any crew who messed up the loading procedure wouldn't be reduced to free-floating subatomic particles. Assuming that their error caused an antimatter leak of some kind, the ship, crew and much of any surrounding fleet would be transmuted to energy - that's what antimatter does, with total efficiency, hence the dangers involved with its use. However, since some scientists believe matter is merely condensed energy anyway, the point is moot. The effect would still be similar, I just pick nits like a crack-fuelled bonobo.


#58, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Bushido on Apr-10-10 at 02:22 PM
In response to message #42
>I did want to pass on a good site for starship models, inpayne.com.
>He does some great work with both canon and kitbash models. His
>U.S.S. Artemis (www.inpayne.com/models/kitbash/trekpage_artemis.html)
>is a great rendition of what the Star Trek Phase II Enterprise might
>have looked like. If I was in UF, that's what I'd love to command
>(NCC-2001 I.P.S. Discovery). Pipe dream perhaps....
>
>Michael

That reminds me of the Darksaber Project from the Star Wars extended universe. http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Darksaber


#45, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by BeardedFerret on Apr-30-09 at 03:31 AM
In response to message #41
LAST EDITED ON Apr-30-09 AT 03:31 AM (EDT)
 
>Well, the ship in question belongs to the WDF anyway, and they don't
>use the Star of Avalon as an insignia - just some blue striping (where
>Starfleet uses red, not that it matters in a monochrome image :) and
>the time-honored WDF diamond.

I thought IPS Surprise was a International Police ship?

On a totally unrelated note, the name of that ship brings to mind that scene in Team America: World Police in which some terrorists are surprised and launched into one of the pyramids at Giza, blowing it up. So now I'm imagining Utena doing it with a spaceship.


#46, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Gryphon on Apr-30-09 at 04:10 AM
In response to message #45
>>Well, the ship in question belongs to the WDF anyway, and they don't
>>use the Star of Avalon as an insignia - just some blue striping (where
>>Starfleet uses red, not that it matters in a monochrome image :) and
>>the time-honored WDF diamond.
>
>I thought IPS Surprise was a International Police ship?

She is, but we've been talking about WDF Scimitar for most of this subthread now.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#47, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by BeardedFerret on Apr-30-09 at 08:54 AM
In response to message #46
>>>Well, the ship in question belongs to the WDF anyway, and they don't
>>>use the Star of Avalon as an insignia - just some blue striping (where
>>>Starfleet uses red, not that it matters in a monochrome image :) and
>>>the time-honored WDF diamond.
>>
>>I thought IPS Surprise was a International Police ship?
>
>She is, but we've been talking about WDF Scimitar for most of
>this subthread now.

Well shit. This tree structure thing confuses the hell out of me.


#17, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Bodhi on Apr-23-09 at 10:17 PM
In response to message #0
Okay... I actually wasn't expecting Utena to get another command. Did I miss a memo? Does this mean she no longer captains the Valiant?

On the other hand, recruiting privateers might be the way to go, given that the original IBGF/Duelists group is somewhat scattered. Incidentally, has Saionji (and his student/padawan/ward) made it back to Migard as of this notice?

I, for one, am eagerly waiting anything connected with Kait/Utena and/or Utena/Corwin, or Mac, cause you know, he's Mac. Sod it, Symphony Five in general, or any pieces there after.

- Bodhi

Read my first UF story in 97, still amazed that I survived college.


#18, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Peter Eng on Apr-24-09 at 03:40 PM
In response to message #17
>Okay... I actually wasn't expecting Utena to get another command.
>Did I miss a memo? Does this mean she no longer captains the
>Valiant?
>

I'd guess that she's been given the Surprise because the IPSF is still short of captains, and the Valiant, though a fine ship, is not suited for the mission as well as the Surprise is.

Peter Eng
--
I'm only a Charter Member because of the DCForum upgrade, and because there's no rank below "Clueless F!wit."


#19, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Droken on Apr-25-09 at 10:01 AM
In response to message #18
Either that, or due to the fact she's Commodore at the time, isn't it one of the duties of the head of the force to take out new ships on their maiden voyage or something like that?

#20, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Peter Eng on Apr-25-09 at 01:46 PM
In response to message #19
>Either that, or due to the fact she's Commodore at the time...

Is she? Without knowing what year this announcement is made, there's no way of telling.

>...isn't it one of the duties of the head of the force to take out new ships on their
>maiden voyage...

It doesn't look like the IPSF has that tradition. Utena wasn't the head of the force when she took command of Valiant.

Peter Eng
--
I'm only a Charter Member because of the DCForum upgrade, and because there's no rank below "Clueless F!wit."


#21, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Star Ranger4 on Apr-25-09 at 06:01 PM
In response to message #20
>It doesn't look like the IPSF has that tradition. Utena wasn't the
>head of the force when she took command of Valiant.
>
I think it was more of Gryphon's personal tradition rather than an institutional one on the part of the IPSF. And techinically he WAS the first to take Valient out of Drydock, remember that he was just about to take her through her acceptance trials when WPI blew up.

#24, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Peter Eng on Apr-27-09 at 02:21 PM
In response to message #21
>I think it was more of Gryphon's personal tradition rather than an
>institutional one on the part of the IPSF. And technically he WAS
>the first to take Valiant out of Drydock, remember that he was just
>about to take her through her acceptance trials when WPI blew up.

No, he was working on Challenger, not Valiant. The Defiant class didn't launch until...(search)...the third Symphony.

And yes, he does seem to run all the drive trials that he can - he was getting ready to give Defiant a test run in the second Symphony. That isn't Gryphon's tradition as head of the force, it's his tradition as a designer of the ship.

I think of it as the starship engineer's equivalent of the lightsaber test. If you designed the ship, and you aren't confident enough to be on board as it's taken to maximum warp, then it's back to the drawing board.

This does not cover the point that I was making. If the maiden voyage is counted as the drive trials, then it's irrelevant because this is clearly not a drive trial. If it's the first mission, then the fact that Valiant launched with Utena in the center chair and Gryphon on the dock makes the claim of "head of the force on the maiden voyage" false.

Peter Eng
--
I'm only a Charter Member because of the DCForum upgrade, and because there's no rank below "Clueless F!wit."


#25, RE: I feel silly today.
Posted by Gryphon on Apr-27-09 at 02:45 PM
In response to message #24
>And yes, he does seem to run all the drive trials that he can - he was
>getting ready to give Defiant a test run in the second
>Symphony.

In Ad Astra, shortly before touring the IP Yards and seeing Valiant on the stocks, Utena does mention that Gryphon plans to do the same with her:

"We're doing something a little different tonight. Corwin's
gonna run me over to the IPO Yards in Zeta C and show me my ship.
She's almost ready for drive trials. Gryphon's gonna take her out
next week and run her in for me."

So Ranger's technically correct - the first time Valiant switched on internal power and left the bay where she was built, Utena wasn't aboard and Gryphon was. However, you make an important point as well; see below.

>That isn't Gryphon's tradition as head of the force, it's
>his tradition as a designer of the ship.
>
>I think of it as the starship engineer's equivalent of the lightsaber
>test. If you designed the ship, and you aren't confident enough to be
>on board as it's taken to maximum warp, then it's back to the drawing
>board.

This is a nice way of putting it; I like that. And you're right on, too. Utena's remark about Gryphon "running in" Valiant is a reference to the ship's fleet acceptance trials, for which, officially speaking, she didn't have a captain; or rather she did, but that captain wasn't aboard. Gryphon was running the show, but in his capacity as chief of the yards - he would've been documented as master and commander (what they call, in aviation circles, "pilot in command"), but not as the vessel's commanding officer.

>This does not cover the point that I was making. If the maiden voyage
>is counted as the drive trials, then it's irrelevant because this is
>clearly not a drive trial. If it's the first mission, then the fact
>that Valiant launched with Utena in the center chair and
>Gryphon on the dock makes the claim of "head of the force on the
>maiden voyage" false.

Yes - in the IPSF (and most other contemporary fleets), such things are reckoned from the first operational mission, with orders from FLEETCOM and the ship's official crew embarked, the vessel having been formally accepted from the Yard for fleet service. That way, the members of the first mission crew, rather than the engineers and technicians who handle the initial trials, are the ship's plankholders. Usually that first mission is undertaken directly after the ship's christening ceremony, so that's a useful waypoint when charting a particular ship's career. (Not that we got to see Valiant's christening, but.)

(In most, but not all, cases, the fleet acceptance process also includes changing the ship's hull number prefix from NX to NCC. Valiant's stayed NX for at least a year after she launched owing to the ship's nebulous status as an Irregular Projects Division testbed.)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.